Category: Recipe

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Circus Peanut Syrup is Back!

This BG Reynolds product started as a joke and then a kickstarter and eventually a product that was discontinued until it was brought back by another kickstarter-type funding round. And it has no reason to exist, except that it is amazing! And it is back on sale. Go to the BG Reynolds website and get Circus Peanut Syrup while you can.

It is exactly what it claims to be, a syrup version of your favorite childhood candy. Or someone’s favorite childhood candy, at least. But as much as you’d expect this to be terrible, the orange and banana flavors really work well in certain tropical cocktails. I guarantee that if you like tiki drinks that you will love Circus Peanut syrup.

Here’s a collection of recipes by Jason Alexander from Devil’s Reef, plus a couple from yours truly.

Recipes by Jason Alexander, unless noted

Barnum & Bailey Planter’s Punch
¾ BG Reynolds Circus Peanut syrup
¼ BG Reynolds Tiki Spices (Don’s Spices)
1 ½ dark Jamaican rum
½ Demerara 151
1 fresh lemon juice
dash Angostura Bitters
dash absinthe

Honey Glazed Nut Punch
¾ BG Reynolds Circus Peanut syrup
¾ BG Reynolds Honey Mix
½ BG Reynolds Cinnamon syrup
2 Demerara rum
¾ fresh lime juice
¾ grapefruit juice
Ray’s favorite

Blair’s Mistake
Dash bitters
Splash of seltzer
1 oz lime
¾ oz circus peanut
¾ oz honey sirop
½ oz pineapple
1 oz 3 Star
1 oz Citadelle Gin
Float 1 oz OFTD

My mistake was not adding the OFTD float

Not my Circus, Not My Monkey’s
2 dashes bitters
Barspoon Zombie Mix
1½ oz lime
1 oz Clown Sirop
¾ oz Don’s Mix
¼ oz luxardo
¾ oz Plantation Xaymaca
¾ oz Plantation Original Dark
1 oz Plantation OFTD

Djumbo Grog
1½ oz grapefruit
¾ oz lime
1 oz Clown Sirop
½ oz cinnamon sirop
½ oz falernum
1 oz Plantation 3 Star
1 oz Plantation Original Dark
1 oz Plantation OFTD

Big Top Mai Tai
½ oz passion fruit sirop
½ oz almond sirop
1 oz Clown Sirop
1½ oz lemon
2½ oz Plantation Xaymaca

Clown Sling
4 dashes bitters
1 oz lemon
1 oz clown sirop
¼ oz cherry heering
¼ oz allspice dram
2 oz gin
2 oz seltzer after mixing

Chimp Cocktail by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime
½ oz BG Reynolds Circus Peanut syrup
½ oz Giffard Banane du Brésil (Banana Liqueur)
2 oz Ultimate Mai Tai Rum Blend or other heavy / Navy Rum

Hurriclown by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lemon Juice
⅓ oz Passionfruit Syrup
¾ oz BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup
1½ oz Dark Jamaican Rum
½ oz Overproof Demerara Rum

A Clown Got Us into This by Rodney Stanton
1½ oz Lime Juice
1½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Nanea
½ oz Overproof Jamaican Rum
½ oz Creme de Banana
¾ oz BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup
⅛ oz Grenadine
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

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Pumpkin Spice Mai Tai with Pumpkin Butter

I make no apologies for loving Pumpkin Spice season, and in the past I’ve done Pumpkin Spice Mai Tais with the now discontinued Captain Morgan Jack-o-Blast rum. This year we encountered another product that’ll let you add those fall flavors to everyone’s favorite tropical cocktail.

The key ingredient is Williams Sonoma Pumpkin Butter, a blend of pumpkin, brown sugar, and fall spices. It works great as a spread on toast or english muffins, and indeed it works well in a Mai Tai. We replaced the rock candy/demerara syrup with two teaspoons of this pumpkin butter and shook it really hard with cubes to make sure everything was incorporated. Also used is the rich Grand Marnier orange liqueur, adding more bold flavors, and the standout blended rum Denizen Merchant’s Reserve.

Pumpkin Spice Mai Tai
1 oz Lime Juice
2 tsp Williams Sonoma Pumpkin Butter
½ oz Orgeat
½ oz Grand Marnier
2 oz Denizen Merchant’s Reserve Rum
Heavy shake with cubes, then strain over crushed ice. Garnish with spooky swizzle and black cherries.

This cocktail is the perfect companion to the newly issued Tiki Goth Club Tiki Nomicon vol. 1, now available at tikigothclub.com. Over 30 full color pages and some great page layout means this is a steal for only five bucks plus shipping. If you like the dark side of tiki, the Tiki Goth Club that our friend Ray Wyland has been leading for the last couple of years is a must-join experience. At the very least, pick up the magazine that includes an article by yours truly about Goth/Tiki experiences in Vienna, Austria.

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Lime Juice: Fresh vs. Fake

The question comes up from time to time about what kind of lime juice is appropriate for a Mai Tai or other craft cocktails. Limes have been super expensive in California lately and the lime juice in the plastic bottles appears to be a cost savings. But does it make for a good cocktail?

I tried this one day in a Mai Tai and found it to be suitable. Something seemed to be missing but not terrible in a pinch and seemingly potentially a reasonable option.

The next day I made two Mai Tais with Denizen Merchant’s Reserve rum and blind tasted them. The Mai Tai with fresh lime juice had a zingy taste that was so much better, whereas the bottled lime juice Mai Tai was simply flat. Maybe this was due to me opening the bottle the day before, but for bottles like this they aren’t typically emptied on the first day, so I think this was a reasonable test.

Though not terrible coming from a bottle, it really does make a difference when you use fresh lime juice.

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Ultimate Queen’s Park Swizzle?

I’d be meaning to make this and it was featured on this weekend’s video from Derek on Make & Drink on YouTube. Derek highlights the difference between Trader Vic’s original 1946 recipe from his Book of Food & Drink with the commonly seen modern Queen’s Park Swizzle using colorless rums and a gigantic float of Ango on top. That style looks great on menus and social media, but leans closer to Mojito territory and doesn’t hold up to the Ango as well. And let’s remember Trader Vic’s noteworthy description of this cocktail, “Queen’s Park Swizzle is the most delightful form anesthesia given out today.”

So, I went with the classic Trader Vic’s recipe that originally called for a Demerara rum. I’m actually out of 86 proof Demerara rum, so I used the Hamilton Florida Rum Society blend that’s 60% Demerara and 40% Jamaican rum, and I compared it to my boozy Jamaican-forward Ultimate Mai Rum blend to see which I preferred.

Queen’s Park Swizzle by Trader Vic
Half of a Large Lime
Mint Leaves
3 oz 86 proof Demerara Rum (Lemon Hart or Hudson’s Bay)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
½ oz Simple Syrup
Squeeze lime wedges and drop shells with mint leaves at bottom of 14 oz glass. Fill glass with shaved ice, add most of ingredients and swizzle until glass frosts. Garnish with sprig of mint.

Comparing the two drinks, the Florida Rum Society rum provided some of the classic Demerara rum smoky notes and overall worked better in this cocktail. The Ultimate Mai Tai blend didn’t work as well because I went a little heavy on the Ango which seemed to overpowered the rum. You definitely want a bold rum in this style of drink.

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Ultimate Kingston Negroni

After years of having Campari in cocktails I’m finally getting accustomed this this bitter Italian liqueur, so much so that I actually like the taste of a classic Negroni cocktail and am really digging the riff that replaces gin with Jamaican rum.

New York bartender Joaquín Simó first made this cocktail in 2010, using the potent overproof Smith & Cross Jamaica rum as the featured spirit. I sure do love Smith & Cross but thought I’d try to create the Ultimate Kingston Negroni.

First I tried Planteray’s Xaymaca, a 100% pot still Jamaica rum issued at 43% ABV. This has more of the classic Jamaica rum flavor than something like Appleton and indeed it made a very nice Kingston Negroni.

Next I tried the Ultimate Mai Tai Rum Blend, an equal portion ratio of Appleton 12, Smith & Cross, Xaymaca, and Planteray OFTD that clocks in at 50% ABV. We love this in a Mai Tai, but it didn’t work amazingly in the Negroni to pair with the bitter Campari.

The best Kingston Negroni I could make? Well, that had Smith & Cross as the rum. Who’d have thunk it? I let Mrs. Mai Tai try this and she said “there is something funky in there.” She used the perfect word without even knowing that this is what folks use to refer to the classic overripe fruit taste of Jamaica rum. This one was by far the best Kingston Negroni.

Kingston Negroni
1 oz Campari
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Smith & Cross Jamaica rum
Stir with ice. Strain over large cubes and express an orange peel.

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Penultimate Mai Tai at The Kon-Tiki

We thank bartender Kriss for indulging us with a little experiment, making a great Penultimate Mai Tai on our visit on Wednesday.

Based on the rums available we riffed a little bit but this is still a dark flavorful rum along with a Hawaiian rum. In this case 1½ oz of Diamond Reserve Dark and ½ oz Kō Hana Kea in a standard 1944 Mai Tai. A little less complex than our four-rum Ultimate Mai Tai blend but still really full of flavor.

The Kon-Tiki Burger and a Mai Tai is still my favorite thing in the town. Pretty busy on Wednesday, everyone keep it going and support our friends at The Kon-Tiki.

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Blue Monday Mai Tai

Yes, it’s a Mai Tai. It has lime, rum, orange liqueur, and orgeat – just like a Mai Tai should. But we are substituting a high quality Blue Curacao in place of the Orange Curacao and using flavorful clear rum, letting that sweet blue color shine. Giffard is our strongly preferred brand of choice and the best Blue Curacao by a mile.

Any quality aged white rum would do fine here. I’m using Denizen Aged White rum but Probitas, Hamilton White Stache or Breezeway Blend, or even Planteray 3 Star would be fine. You just want to have a little age on the rum to impart some barrel notes that nod to the Mai Tai’s original long-aged rum. Any Overproof Jamaica rum such as Wray & Nephew, Rum Bar, Worthy Park, or Monymusk would fit the bill here though in this case I’m using Rum Fire.

Blue Mai Tai

1 oz Lime Juice

½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)

¼ oz Simple Syrup

½ oz Giffard Curaçao Bleu

½ oz Denizen Aged White Rum

1 oz Rum Fire Overproof Jamaica Rum

Shake with crushed ice and garnish with mint.

The clearer and less brown/cloudy your orgeat is the better. Latitude 29 fits the bill perfectly and could be used at ¾ oz to omit the simple syrup entirely.